Don't Stray
by Lee Aiden
Summary: After a tornado destroys their home, a family is taken in by a group of individuals called The Wyatt Family. But there's more to them than just their appearance or strange ways. There's a curse on them. And the only person that could possibly save them all is the other family's daughter. But can she do so in time- and is she even willing to? [AU, eventual Bray/OC]
1. Prologue One

I knew moving was a bad idea. I kept saying it over and over again to my parents, "We're fine here in Wisconsin, why the hell do we have to move to bum-fuck Louisiana of all places?" But they never listened. Their decision had already been made ahead of time. There was no point in arguing, nor was there anything I could do about it.

I looked over to my sister, who sat alone on the couch. Headphones in her ears, a book in her hands, she couldn't pay less attention to anything I said if she tried. (Yeah, I wasn't exactly on the best of terms with her- it'd been that way for about four years now.) She said nothing to me. She said nothing to my parents.

It was like she didn't even care anymore.

Of course, living in an entirely new place had its downs.

Yes, I'm aware of what I said. There were no ups to living in Louisiana as far as I could see. All the so-called "perks" were negative. Being a senior in high school didn't exactly help anything, either. Despite being in the top grade, kids from my own graduating class would push and bump into me in the hallway. They'd call me stupid names like "white trash" and whatever else you could think of.

I'd come home every day and throw my backpack down on the floor by the basement door. Mom would look up from her chair in the living room and ask, "How was school, honey? Any better?" To which I would answer with a blunt, "No," and trudge up the stairs to my room. Dad would yell up and ask what I wanted for supper. I'd slam the door without even bothering to respond. I would then proceed to bury my head under my pillows of my bed.

Delicately reaching my ears, I'd hear my sister's television in her room. True to form, she was watching wrestling again.

I'd normally kick the wall and tell her to turn that shit down, but God knows I'd rather step on a thumbtack than speak to her at the moment.

My eyes shut drowsilly as I allowed a nap to overtake my conciousness. Unfortunately for me, her television speakers were still on when I finally fell asleep.


	2. Prologue Two

My sister is a special individual.

I don't mean it in the way as saying she's autistic or disabled, I mean in a genuine, positive way. She's special.

But I'd be caught dead saying that out loud.

Her name's Elise. She's five years older than me; twenty-two, and fresh out of college. I'm seventeen and still struggling with secondary-level schooling. She's multi-talented in a number of factors, but still has her struggles in some areas like anyone else. Even so, she works twice as hard as anyone else to succeed- not because she wants to, but because she feels like she has to.

I couldn't do anything like that. To be honest, I'd rather sit in my room and play video games than try and apply for a job. And that kind of proves something.

Plus, despite being socially awkward, my sister found it easy to make friends. She's sweet, kind, open-minded, warm-hearted, encouraging... the kind of person you'd want to call your friend. Unfortunately, she had to leave all her friends behind in Wisconsin when we moved down here. Since then, she's receded more and more into herself; spending more and more time in her room than anywhere else, only coming out when she has to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or whenever she chooses to get a snack from the cupboards. It sounds sort of like your average cliche depression, but it wasn't depression. It was lonliness.

She needed someone to fill that hole in her heart that she lost when we moved to Louisiana.

And to me, it seemed that at this point, she'd take anyone. Any form of friend or companion to help her slowly come back to her old ways.

Though, from what I could see, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. She needed a miracle.

But I was still skeptical as to whether or not miracles existed.

If they did, it was going to take a long, long time.


	3. Chapter One

We didn't see it coming. We weren't warned in time, so we ended up receiving the damage more than anybody.  
Though, I guess that's another downside to moving somewhere you're not exactly accepted- no one tells you about natural disasters. Like tornadoes, for example.  
I'm still not sure how it even happened. My dad watched the news every night. So why weren't we aware of what was about to come, and what eventually destroyed what little refuge we had?  
My parents tried to think of reasonable solutions. Somehow, thankfully, one of our cars was still working and in one piece, so we'd attempt to find somewhere to stay for the time being until we could find a permanent home. If that was even able to be done.  
It hit Elise the hardest. Her computer, her TV, her wrestling DVD's... everything she had was torn to shreds or lost from the tornado. All she really had to her name now were the clothes on her back, the shoes on her feet, and her cell phone, which she barely used.

We left that same night.  
My sister, who looked more broken than ever before, sat in the back seat next to me, clutching a pillow to her chest- the one pillow of her that had survived the tornado.  
When we backed out of the debris-littered driveway, she buried her face in the pillow and let out a tiny sniffle.

As far as I'm concerned, people in Louisiana are assholes. Not one person in our entire neighborhood whose house had withstood the disaster would let us stay with them. Not even for one night. They wouldn't even allow us to sleep on the floor. They'd basically bitch us out, swear and spit in our face, and tell us to get the fuck out. Even the homeless shelters kept claiming to us that there was no more room.  
For who knows how long, we'd be on our own.  
Remind me to ask my parents why we even bothered to move here in the first place again.  
True to form, my sister said nothing. She'd sit quietly in the car, her expressionless face staring out the window. From time to time, she'd check the time on her phone, then go back to sleeping on her pillow.  
I didn't blame her. There wasn't much she could have done, either.

We'd been driving for some time over the past two days. By now, we'd lost trace of the busy city parts of the state and ended up in the outskirts. The backwater parts where the country bums probably lived.  
My dad managed to come across a little shop on the road, so we stopped the car and decided to take a venture inside. It was basically a little diner, with a little part of the building that contained some clothing racks with some shirts and blue jeans. Mom and Dad immediately went for the clothes. I sat myself at the counter table, and Elise slowly made her way to the bathroom.  
"Anything I can get you, dear?" a voice reached my ears and I looked up to see a woman about my mom's age smiling at me from behind the counter, drying off some cups with a washcloth.  
I bit my lip and played with my fingers. "...Just water's fine, thanks," I mumbled. A few seconds later, a clean cup of the clear liquid was placed in front of my hands, which I drank slowly.  
The woman set the washcloth down on the table next to her. "Y'all seem a little bit down," she spoke to me. "Anything the matter?"  
"Well, we just lost our entire home in a freak tornado," I replied. "No one's even letting us spend a night somewhere just to get sleep or anything. We're- we're kinda desperate at this point."  
Out of the corner of my eye, my sister had emerged from the bathroom and had taken to browsing the shirts. She was known for strictly wearing band shirts with skinny jeans and Converse sneakers. Anything else was a no, so I wasn't surprised when she moved away from the rack shortly after.  
"Well now," I heard the woman's voice again. "Normally I wouldn't go tellin' people 'bout this, but I know someplace that'll take you and your family in without question."  
Immediately, my head snapped up. "Really?" I asked almost out of disbelief. "Wh-where is it?"  
She reached under the counter and grabbed a slip of paper, writing something on it before slipping it into my hand. "Give this to your dad. Don't be afraid to ask for directions if you get lost. Shouldn't be too hard, though, s'basically a straight shot up the road for 'bout twenty miles."  
I nodded, but then thought of something to ask her last-minute. "...Why don't you tell people about it?"  
The woman stacked up a couple plates before turning back to me. "S'best if you find out for yourself. You'll see why."

When we had all piled back into the car, I gave my dad the paper and told him about what the woman had said to do. He started the vehicle up without question, driving back down the road.  
Of course, there was no way of telling when we'd really reach the place, so when we found a couple of guys fixing a truck on the side of the road, we stepped out to ask for directions. When my dad showed them the paper, the smaller of the two men let out a snort, but the other one held up an arm. "It's a couple miles up the road that way," he replied.  
With a nod in thanks, my dad moved back toward the car, but a mumble from the smaller man made him turn back.  
"...Buzzards?" my dad asked slowly, raising an eyebrow.  
"Don't worry," the second male responded with a lopsided grin. "You'll know."

While my dad continued to drive, I plucked the paper from the top of the box compartment that separated the driver's and passenger's seats.  
I unfolded it, expecting to see an address written down, but that wasn't the case. There were only three words on there in barely legible chicken scratch.

_**"The Wyatt Family".**_


End file.
